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Critique my photos?

Original Post
Pat F · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jan 2017 · Points: 5

Hey MP! I've done a little bit of climbing photography and I'm looking to get more serious with it, but I want to know what I can improve on/ anything I'm not doing right. Here's a few of my better photos. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! :-)

Danny · · Boulder · Joined Sep 2015 · Points: 135

photos are great. very white male -centric though. 

Austin Baird · · SLC, Utah · Joined Apr 2009 · Points: 95

Great shots. Two suggestions:

1) If your climbers know you're going to be taking pictures, tell them to wear bright clothing. Grey or white shirts against grey or white rock robs the pictures of what could be interesting contrast.

2) In several of them, especially the first and last, it seems like you can't decide if you want to focus on the climber and the movement or if you want to include something in the background (landscape in the first and belayer in the last). The overall result (at least for me) is to rob the picture of the focus on movement or emotion by trying to include something that isn't that interesting anyway.

Pat F · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jan 2017 · Points: 5

Thanks for all the feedback! I'll definitely keep it all in mind next time I go out to shoot. 

Ken Noyce · · Layton, UT · Joined Aug 2010 · Points: 2,648

I personally would prefer a lot of these if they weren't cropped/framed quite so close to the climber (the bouldering one is an exception).  By framing so closely the edge of the photo feels very abrupt (and I'm never a fan of photos where the climber is cut in half like your first one), and I want a sense of what is coming up ahead of the climber.

Also I'm not a fan of the framing where the belayer is in the photo. The blue tarp that the rope is on is a bright color and it draws your eyes to it taking the focus away from the subject.   

edit to add: The third photo is really weird to me, I feel like I want to see more rock above the climber, and yet have no desire to see all of the rock to the right of the climber, so I think the photo would have been much better if it were taken vertically instead of horizontally.

Brent D · · New England · Joined Oct 2016 · Points: 279

As a couple other people have mentioned, you should be shooting either tighter or looser based upon the conditions.  

#3 is an interesting shot, but not that tight.  Zoom out and you'll probably have a much more interesting shot.  Pay attention to the rule of thirds as well. 

#4 is also interesting because of the expression, so it should be shot tighter to focus on the expression and not the stuff around. 

And as a general suggestion, you should spend some time in lightroom learning some editing techniques to make your images pop.  Good editing can make or break a photo.  I've attached an example.

 

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

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